Tuesday, July 15, 2014

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

4th June 2013 by Penguin

3.5 stars

Synopsis

Emaline is spending her last summer before college in her home beach town of Colby. Everything is familiar - from working for her bossy sister Margo at the family rental company to Emaline's gorgeous (and regularly shirtless) childhood sweetheart, Luke.

But when an out-of-town brash New York filmmaker, and her young assistant Theo, come to stay at one of the beach houses, everything Emaline thought she knew about herself changes.

But can her heart let go of a life she's loved for so long?

Review

So this is the first book I decided to pick up after reading City of heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, which as you may know is a pretty tough act to follow. I don't know why I chose this book in particular, it's probably just because it's a contemporary and I just needed something light and maybe a little mushy. In all honesty though I didn't get the kind of mushy I was expecting say from something like a book from Stephanie Perkins, instead I got a contemporary novel with some daily life troubles thrown in.

This isn't a particularly bad thing and as I will say now this book wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly my favourite book of all time either. I liked the plot but probably not for the reasons I was suppose to. What did I like exactly?. Well that's simple, everything that involved Clyde. Cylde turns out to be a really amazing ex-artist who decided to move back to the small town Colby after reaching the peak of his career in New York. I don't know why I found him and his story so interesting but I just liked the fact that he was so mysterious but so down to earth at the same time.

Now on to the part I'd really like the delve into, the romance. Do I usually like romance in books?, yes. Did I like the romance in this book?, no. Luke who is the childhood sweetheart of the story was okay for a boy next door type, but honestly I never felt any real connection to him for some reason. Now Luke isn't exactly my main concern when it comes to this book, my biggest pet peeve about this book was Theo. I did not like him at all. For the most part I just wanted to jump into the book and punch him in the face just like I had wanted to do to Jacob Black back in the day. As a character and a potential love interest he started out okay, but honestly it just went bad from there as you'll know if you've read the book. Not only did he get on my nerves as a character but I feel as a love interest everything came on too early in the book for my liking. Emaline and Theo had only met a couple of times before they decided to make it official, and so because of this I never felt a genuine connection to the two of them. To sum it up it just seemed all sorts of wrong.

Overall if you like contemporary books or you're just looking for a light read, I say go for it!. Will I pick up any other Sarah Dessen books?, yeah I'll give it a shot because I've heard mixed things about all of her books. I think for the most part though this books was okay and I definitely liked the way it ended, and when it comes to endings I'm usually a really hard person to please. One thing I have to add though is that I really liked the setting for this book, and I seriously just want to catch a flight to America and rent a beach house.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Back when I had a book blog I uploaded posts called "Waiting On Wednesday". What are they about you may ask?. Well Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly post that showcases a book that you are eagerly anticipating, and it's hosted by the lovely Jill over at Breaking The Spine.

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Releases 14th August 2014

Synopsis

From Glittering Manhattan to Moonlit Paris, Falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. Until they are forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever afters aren't always forever. Revisiting beloved couples Anna and Etienne and Lola and Cricket, this sweeping finale will charm fans old and new.

Oh how I love Stephanie Perkins and her charming, cheesy contemporary books. Yes they are filled with romance and swoon worthy guys. I never thought I would love books primarily about romance but once you pick up one of Stephanie's books you can't help but love them in all their mushy glory. So if you haven't picked up one of her books I really suggest you do. Just make sure you pick up Anna and the French Kiss first :).

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

So it has come to that time of the year again where one of my favourite series has ended and I get all nostalgic. The culprit of my nostalgia this time is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, which if you're not into books then you should know it's part of The Mortal Instruments series.

So yes I finished it yesterday and yes it was amazing!, but It's just hitting me now how sad I am that it's over. I mean I've been reading this series since 2010 and since then I've gone through quite a few life changes, I finally left secondary school (or hell as I often call it) and I got a crappy part time job. Of course I'm not as sad as I should be because it's not the end of this amazing fictional world because as you may (or may not) know, Cassandra Clare is releasing two more shadowhunter series so it's not the last time we'll get to see the characters of TMI.

Would you look at that I'm blabbing away!. Anyway my point is that I was asking myself the question "Why do I read?". I mean why read when in truth it causes me emotional pain?, and if you think that I'm joking I'm seriously not. Well I've whittled it down to this. I can't live without books. Like it's impossible now not to read, it's like a necessity to me. Just like we all have to breath to live, I have to read. I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who has never fallen in love with characters or worlds that only exist in the mind and on the pages of books, because I'm telling you it's the most magical thing in this world.

The characters in books have been there for me when people haven't. They've made me laugh, cry and even made me feel brave. In theory I shouldn't be giving thanks to the characters but the authors who bring them to life. God I have no idea what this post is meant to be about, I'm just in a mourning period over CoHF. I guess this post is also a sort of thanks to authors and their characters but it's also a plea to anyone who doesn't read. Books are the closest thing we humans (or mundanes of which I'm not one ;)) have to magic, or at least that's what I believe.

So please, I beg of you. If you leave this post with one thing, leave it with a determination to find a book and author you absolutely love because I promise you it will be the one thing you won't regret.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Hello and welcome to my first blog post about music, which I have decided to call "Currently Playing". Yes very original I know. So how does it work exactly?, well whenever I discover some new music I love or maybe some old tracks that I've fallen in love with all over again I'll write a post. But don't expect just one song because there will be a few, I'm going to take a guess and say five at most. I'll also link the song titles to a YouTube video so you can go listen to the song as much as you like without having to do all the searching. So without further ado here are the songs I'm currently loving (By the way these are in no particular order).

Oh this song!. I just honestly can't get enough, it's so different from some of the absolute junk that gets released today. The one thing that everyone needs to know about this song though is that he says "I'd leave it all" and not I divido or Ah bi bi doh, these are the variations I got from YouTube but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who misunderstood what he was saying.

Yet another song I first heard listening to BBC Radio 1, so thank you very much for helping me to discover some great music ;). This is just one of those songs I will end up playing on repeat until I get absolutely bored of it.

I remember having this song on repeat constantly after I first discovered it featured on an advert for a new Assassins Creed game, and for some strange reason I've started listening to it again. It also started playing just after I had finished reading City of Heavenly Fire so major bad arse points there.

I was on a little country kick a few weeks ago and this is always a song I go back to. Not only that but I'm hoping to go on a three week trip across America in 2016 and this song will definitely be going on the playlist, because well ROAD TRIP!!!!.